1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of patient immobilizers and, more particularly, to devices that restrain and support a patient's head, neck, and upper torso during emergency treatment and transportation and during short- and long-term rehabilitation.
2. Description of the Prior art
The human head is very vulnerable to injuries at the back of the head and particularly at the base of the skull where the skull provides little or no protection. This is a most critical area for it is there that the spinal cord emerges from the brain. Injury to the spinal cord threatens every aspect of human physiology: control of respiration, heart rate, body temperature, consciousness, swallowing, vaso-constriction and dilation, and a myriad other autonomic nervous system functions. Injury to the brain stem or spinal cord may result in paralysis and even death.
The base of the human head and neck are frequently injured in a variety of situations. Also, the head, neck, and upper shoulders closely interact with each other. For instance, motion of the head or the shoulders may seriously aggravate a pre-existing neck injury. At the place of injury; it is imperative that the patient be immobilized for subsequent transport and short-term or long-term treatment. Predominantly, the present practice is to provide the patient with a cervical collar. Typical cervical collar designs have many disadvantages: they fail to immobilize the head and they also apply excessive pressure in the brain stem area, a most dangerous circumstance if a fracture in that area had occurred and swelling ensued. In such an instance, the cervical collar could aggravate the fracture and aggravate brain damage or spinal cord damage.
There are several head and neck supports already available. Many of these are intended to support the head and or the neck while the patient is walking (U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,702). Others are intended to immobilize the head alone (U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,185) or the neck alone (e.g. U.S. Pat. 4,677,969).
A need exists in the art for a device to isolate a brain stem or spinal cord injury from all surrounding anatomical structures. Such a device would immobilize a patient's head, neck, and upper body relative to each other and maintain these immobile with respect to a backboard, particularly preventing lateral movement (i.e., left to right). Such a device also would provide access to the trachea, brain stem, cervical spine, ears, face and other areas so as to facilitate observation and treatment of these areas during immobilization and transport.